Imperial Japanese Navy: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) (大日本帝國海軍 or 日本海軍) was the navy of Japan before 1945.

The opening of Japan

The study of Western shipbuilding in Japan started in the 1840s and intensified with the opening of the country to international trade by Commodore Perry in 1854.

From that time, the Tokugawa shogun government started an active policy of assimilation of Western naval techniques. A naval training school was established in Nagasaki in 1855. Naval students were sent to study in Western naval schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders, such as Admiral Enomoto, Admiral Togo, and later on Admiral Yamamoto. French naval engineers where hired to build naval arsenals, such as Yokosuka and Nagasaki.

By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, the Japanese navy of the shogun already possessed eight western-style steam warships, which were used against pro-imperial forces during the Boshin war, under the command of Admiral Enomoto.

From 1868, the restored Meiji Emperor continued with massive reforms to industrialize and militarize Japan in order to prevent it from being overwhelmed by the United States and European powers. During the Meiji period, Japan relied heavily on British and French expertise and bought many ships from British shipyards, but very quickly built up a strong national naval industry. The last major purchase was in 1913 when a battlecruiser, Kongo, was purchased from the Vickers shipyard.

Although Japan lacked many of the resources of the European powers of the time, by the beginning of the 20th century Japan had created a navy that bested the navies of both China and Russia (Battle of Tsushima), and by 1920 it was the world's third largest navy.

• The Japanese Navy was the first in the world to have a wireless communication system.
• In 1909 it launched the battleship Satsuma, at the time the largest ship in the world by displacement.
• In terms of armament, it was the first navy to mount 15-, 16- and 18-inch guns.
• In 1922, it launched the Hosho, the first purpose-designed aircraft carrier the world.

In the years before WW II the IJN began to structure itself specifically to fight the US. A long stretch of militaristic expansion and the start of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937 had alienated the US and America was seen more often as the enemy of Japan.

In order to combat the numerically superior American navy, the IJN devoted large amounts of resources to creating a force superior in quality to any navy at the time. Out of this effort came numerous achievements:

• Shells designed for penetration below the target ship's waterline.
• The fabled Long Lance torpedo.
• Superb night-fighting techniques.
• Aircraft carriers, such as the Shokaku and Zuikaku, exceeding any in the world in performance and capability, until the wartime development of the American Essex class aircraft carrier.
• A competent naval air force designed around the best fighter plane of the beginning of the war, the Mitsubishi Zero.
• The Yamato, the largest and most heavily-armed battleship in history, launched in 1941.

Consequently, at the beginning of World War II, Japan probably had the most sophisticated Navy in the world.

Although the Japanese Navy enjoyed spectacular success during the first part of the hostilities, American forces ultimately managed to gain the upper hand through technological upgrades to its Air and Naval forces, and a vastly stronger industrial output.

During the last phase of the war the Imperial Japanese Navy resorted to a series of desperate measures, including suicide Kamikaze actions.

Following Japan's surrender to the United States at the conclusion of World War II, and Japan's subsequent occupation, Japan's entire imperial military was dissolved in the new 1947 constitution which states, "The Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of force as a means of settling international disputes."

Japan's current navy falls under the umbrella of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF).

• Battle of Yalu River (1894) (Naval victory over the Chinese)
• Battle of Tsushima (1905 naval victory over the Russians)
• Attack on Pearl Harbor (December 7th, 1942 destruction of the USN Pacific Fleet)
• Battle of the Coral Sea(Narrow victory against the US Navy)
• Battle of Midway (IJN looses four carriers to USN aircraft attacks)
• Battle of Guadalcanal (Location of seven great IJN-USN battles)
• Battle of the Philippine Sea
• Battle of Leyte Gulf

• "KAIGUN, Strategy, tactics and technology of the Imperial Japanese Navy, 1887-1941",David C.Evans & Mark R.Peattie, Naval Insitute Press, Annapolis, Maryland [ISBN 0870211927]
  
• "The origins of Japanese Trade Supremacy, Development and technology in Asia from 1540 to the Pacific War", Christopher Howe, The University of Chicago Press [ISBN 0226354857]